Category: Food

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Takeaway Free Zone (Part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about how our home at the moment is working on a grocery budget. I was thinking about this again this morning and came up with some more positive aspects to this change we have made.

 

  • I noticed this morning that this was the first time I had to empty the rubbish in 4 days J. The rubbish bin in the kitchen is a very small bin so our efforts to reduce food wastage by planning meals better is having a noticeable reduction on our rubbish production.
  • This reduction in waste has an economic spin off as well. In a few months time when our wheeli bin contract expires I will be able to look for a much more money efficient option as at our present rubbish production rate it will take us weeks to fill up a bin!
  • Our freezer is packed to the seams with food which energy wise (and therefore cost wise) is the best way to have it. I’ve always known this but have not ever really thought why this is the best way. Here is a good explanation below

“The first and easiest step is to ensure that the refrigerator is as full as possible. This initially seems counter-intuitive. However, every time the refrigerator is opened all the cold air in it falls out of it towards the floor and it is replaced with warmer air from the room.

This means that the temperature inside the refrigerator rises sharply and it has to work extra hard to cool the new air. You will have heard the refrigerator start humming after you have opened it; this is the reason why.

For every cold, space occupying object in the refrigerator there is less cold air to be lost when the door is opened. So putting the potatoes in the fridge rather than in the cupboard will help reduce the energy cost of running the machine. The same goes for fruit, drinks and so on. While these objects take a while to be cooled, this is easily offset by the energy you save by not losing extra cool air each time the door is opened. Even if you do not regularly drink cold water, placing full bottles of water inside the refrigerator when there is spare space will lighten the load on your electricity bill.”

Source: http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/energy-efficient-refrigerator.html

(I now have to go and get my fridge sorted out also! It will reduce some of my cupboard space which is great as some areas are a little packed)

 

  • Old recipes from childhood are starting to come out again to be used. It made a nice holiday activity to read through the old recipe books and reminisce about how amazing some recipes used to taste. I won’t ever be the kind of person who makes preserves etc but my organic blueberries this morning were stewed with apple and frozen in reused plastic containers ready for desserts over the next few weeks so I’m quite proud of myselfC.
  • And of course there has to be health advantages to eating a good balanced home cooked meal rather than a takeaway!
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Takeaway free zone (for now at least!)

Xmas has gone and the family has been on a grocery budget the last few weeksJ. I figure that it will not only help pay the mortgage off quicker, but wiser food buying will be better for the environment as it will mean less food purchased and wasted.

 

So here are our steps so far:

 

  • We have made a commitment to try and go to the grocery shops only once a week to help with budgeting and reducing petrol.  
  • We go with a list, which is something we never have done before, and the list is planned around possible meals so we know the purchases we make will end up being used. We can be better consumers by making informed purchases rather than random purchases on the spot at a usually crazy grocery store.
  • We bulk buy if it’s a good deal and bulk cook where we can and freeze food in plastic containers that have come from other food purchases so we are not wasting money/resources buying plastic containers or bags.
  • Once we have shopped we create a meal planner sheet on the fridge so we don’t get tempted to go for takeaways as what is planned for dinner has already been written on the planner.

 

The result of this is that over the last two weeks we have found that we are throwing away almost no waste food as we plan meals to make the most of the ingredients we have in the house at the time. Also because we plan ahead we can now defrost meat slowly in the fridge rather than wasting power defrosting meat at the last minute in the microwave. And of course with no takeaways there are no takeaway containers.

 

We’ve even started to barter! We went to dinner last night at the in-laws. We brought the dinner, bulk cooked and frozen from our big Bolognese cook up the previous week. The plastic containers came home with us again! We got organic blueberries in return to take home with us picked from the Blueberry Farm. I then shared some of these blueberries with my Mum who in return brought around cold ginger beers from her fridge.

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The Earth Camp

My local paper had an article this week about this earth camp programme in the Akatarawa Valley  at the Organic Blueberry Farm in Upper Hutt (Wellington, New Zealand). It is a series of workshops where local experts run sessions teaching parents and children skills that are dying out such as making preserves, fly fishing, organic gardening and cooking organic recipes. I don’t have any children but it sounds a great initiative for a good family activity. The workshops run from January through to the end of April. You can find more info and their calendar of events on the Blueberry Farm blog.